MUSIC REVIEWS: Karen Dalton, Chris Isaak, & Chelsea Crowell
One of the least forgettable artists to appear on an Oxford American CD of late was Karen Dalton of Enid, Oklahoma, who died in 1993, but not after etching her way into the consciousness of whoever heard her. Bob Dylan was one of the touched, and, in his 2004 autobiography, he wrote these now famous lines about his memories of Café Wha?, the Greenwich Village stomping ground for avant-garde and folkie talent: “My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton.... Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed.... I sang with her a couple of times.”


